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Kelly Ayotte on defense over gun vote

TILTON, N.H. — Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s town hall meeting here ended with scant discussion of gun control, an issue that consumed Washington for much of the past month.

Pro-gun control activists, who attended the meeting, were incensed. Security brushed aside two women who approached Ayotte and demanded to speak with the first-term Republican about her vote against expanded background checks for commercial gun sales, underscoring the lingering controversy that continues to hover over the New Hampshire senator.

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In the aftermath of the Senate’s failed vote two weeks ago to expand background checks, New Hampshire has suddenly emerged as ground zero in the national battle over gun control, with Ayotte now stuck at the center of the fight.

Powerful outside groups run by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg are bankrolling ads and vowing to dump huge resources into the state to force Ayotte to reverse her opposition to the bill or pay the political consequences. And after two years of projecting a profile as a foreign policy and deficit hawk, her critics in the state have spent the past two weeks trying to rebrand her as: “NRAyotte.”

Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association is running radio ads thanking her for her support.

The emotional fight threatens to transform Ayotte — a young conservative Republican woman whose star is on the rise — into a polarizing figure back home on a contentious issue. Instead of taking up the banner of gun rights, Ayotte is seeking a lower profile on the subject in a state where she’s become the last Republican in the all-female congressional delegation.

“It hurts her,” said Kathy Sullivan, a longtime Democratic operative and former head of the state party here. “Elections are won in New Hampshire with the vote of independents, particularly independent women. Independent women will not favor a candidate who does not believe in background checks. Will it be the only issue? No, but it will be an issue.”

Ayotte, for her part, seems to wish it would all go away, as she finds herself in the middle of a firestorm for the first time in her short Senate career. The freshman Republican represents a libertarian-minded state that has been a stronghold for gun rights, but polls show strong support for expanded background checks.